1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the treatment of soil, sand and the like, and particularly to a system and method for remediation of oil-contaminated sand.
2. Description of the Related Art
Oil sands (also referred to as tar sands or bituminous sands) are a type of unconventional petroleum deposit. Although it is useful to extract usable oil and other petroleum products from the oil sands, the recovered sand is also of great use. If the sand can be effectively washed or cleaned of oil, and other oil-based materials, the sand could be used for a variety of industrial applications, such as, for example, the production of asphalt concrete mixes in road bases, secondary roads, impermeable layers for landfills and containment structures, stabilizing steep embankments, enhancement of resistance to the penetration of water, chloride ions, alkali ions and the like in concrete, etc.
Although the usage of surfactants is common for the separation of the oil from the sand, the primary focus of such techniques is the remediation of oil, thus there has been little focus on further or additional processing for the sand. Thus, a system and method for remediation of oil-contaminated sand addressing the aforementioned problems is desired.